Good Friday

By

Cross on a high mountain


A faithful person

sees life from the perspective of trust,

not fear.

Bedrock faith allows me to believe that,

despite the chaos of the present moment,

God does reign;

that regardless of how worthless I may feel,

I truly matter to a God of love;

that no pain lasts forever

and no evil triumphs in the end.

Faith sees even the darkest deed of all history,

the death of God's Son,

as a necessary prelude to the brightest.



Philip Yancey




A very happy Easter to all of you!


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Why You Should Make "Less is More" Your Mantra for Life

By
Image
Maybe you've heard the saying popularized by architect Mies van der Rohe in 1947:  "Less is more." It's an oxymoron – a phrase that seems to contradict itself.  Others include "old news," "open secret," "unbiased opinion," and "awfully good."  Or the lament, "Parting is such sweet sorrow." What does "less is more" mean?  It's wonderfully open-ended.  Answers to that are as varied as the people who reply.  Consider: Less anxiety, more peace. Less debt, more savings. Less busywork, more substance. Less clutter, more space. Less comparison, more contentment. Less sugar, more vegetables. Voluntary simplicity Back in the 1990s, a fair number of Americans realized that the continual quest for more and better was stressing them out and keeping them from creating lives of purpose.  After the consumerist binge of the yuppie-era 80s, some started wondering if the big house, flashy car, exotic vacation, and Rolex we...
Read more

Why You Should Try Wearing the Same Clothes Every Day

By
Image
Wearing the same clothes every day would get boring, wouldn't it? A long time ago, I had a job that required a uniform, and I have to say it did make life easier .  I had three copies of my work outfit, and there was never a question about what to wear.  I never worried whether my clothes were stylish or "right," because everyone else wore the same thing. The same argument has been used in public and private schools in favor of student uniforms.  Rather than constant worries about fashion and comparisons and dress codes, a uniform makes everything simple.  It's one less thing to think about in the complex life of a student. Many people argue that clothes make a statement about who you are.  "I express myself through my clothes" is a comment I've often heard, usually from women.  The idea of a uniform scares them, because how will they make themselves noticeable or unique ? I think we might be imagining some sort of Handmaid's Tale society, where we...
Read more

4 Ways to Overcome Lifestyle Inflation and Live Free

By
Image
Lifestyle inflation is when your income goes up and your lifestyle follows right along.  So when you get a raise, you don't use it to pay down debt, save more for education or retirement or your dream vacation, or give more to those who struggle to get just the basics.  No .  When you get a raise, you enlarge your cost of living.  You buy a bigger house or a fancier car, you upgrade your electronics, you splurge on designer clothes, or you increase your personal maintenance costs (read: salon, spa, and personal trainer services). After all, you worked hard for that promotion and you deserve all those treats. Most of us do this.  My husband and I did it back in the day.  Within months after he signed his first public school teaching contract (effectively doubling his salary from the small church school in which he'd started his career), we had bought a house (borrowing the down payment), leased a new and larger car, bought new furniture, and started eating i...
Read more

52 Minimalist Hobbies to Benefit and Enrich Your Life

By
Image
Everyone benefits from a hobby or two.  Hobbies reduce stress by letting you spend time on something you enjoy provide scope for creativity and imagination make you more knowledgeable and interesting help you develop patience and skills improve your sense of accomplishment and self-esteem promote mindfulness and concentration can create a social life and let you bond with others who share your interests can allow you to stay active and physically healthy I've known people with entire rooms dedicated to their hobby – studios for painting and pottery, sewing rooms, woodworking sheds, and basements filled with wine-making apparatus or a model train setup. But even if you live in a small space, like my husband and I do, or you want to pursue hobbies that require less equipment and expense, you're in luck.  Many hobbies take a lot of space and tools, but many do not, and you can probably find one of those that you'll enjoy. There are some tricks to making a hobby work in a small...
Read more

One Surprising Reason to Declutter Half of Your Stuff

By
Image
For a long time, I loved clothes.  They were my passion and my weakness.  I went to the mall two or three times a week, and bought something on at least one of those trips.  After all, the more you look, the more you buy! Actually, "clothes" is a catch-all term for "anything I can wear on my body."  I bought plenty of shoes, handbags, belts, scarves, and jewelry too.  Let's face it – clothes can be hard to get just right, but purses and jewelry always fit , don't they? The turning point At some point, I realized the jewelry had gotten out of hand.  I had so much it was hard to actually wear all of it.  Most of it sat tangled in boxes and drawers, and I found myself wearing a couple of necklaces, a couple of brooches, and a few pairs of earrings all the time. I discovered that organizing isn't enough .  I could get my jewelry untangled and sorted and pretty yet still not use most of it.  I bought "storage solutions," and the collection looked ...
Read more